NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 5 – The Council of East and Central African Football Association (CECAFA) is considering switching the annual Kagame Club Cup to January from the traditional dates in June/July, according to Secretary General Nicholas Musonye.
This year’s tournament is yet to be held owing to logistical challenges, but Musonye maintains it will be played.
“All the tournaments we had scheduled to have this year will go on as planned, including the Nile Basin Tournament. For the Kagame Cup, we are looking at switching it to January to help our clubs prepare for the CAF matches just like we did in the past. We are still working on the plans and we will announce soon,” Musonye told Capital Sport.
The Secretary General admitted there have been challenges in hosting tourneys in the recent past, but remains optimistic the council is putting up measures to ensure everything runs according to script.
Meanwhile, all plans are underway ahead of the CECAFA Women’s Championship which will be held from September 11 in Jinja, Uganda.
Musonye says they are still working with the hosts, the Federation of Ugandan Football Associations on the finer logistical details including prize money structures.
Kenya’s Harambee Starlets reported to residential camp on Sunday evening ahead of the tournament which they will be using to prepare for their debut at the African Women’s Cup of Nations in November in Cameroon.
Head coach David Ouma affirmed that winning the title will give them a huge morale boost.
“It’s a good platform for us to get ready for AFCON and our targets in the least will be to get into the knockout stages. Winning of course will give us that psychological motivation but we want to go a step at a time,” Ouma told Capital Sport.
Kenya is pooled in Group A alongside hosts Uganda, Burundi and Zanzibar while Group B has Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Ouma will hope to build on from the positive campaign the girls had in the COTIF tournament in July where they finished fourth and he has hinted he will make changes to the team as he aims to increase his scope of players.
“I want to assess the team in the next two days of training before we depart on Friday so that I get to know what areas we lack in and what players we need for this particular tournament,” Ouma stated.
CECAFA pools
Group A: Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Zanzibar
Group B: Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Full fixtures:
September 11: Zanzibar vs Burundi, Uganda vs Kenya, September 12; Tanzania vs Rwanda, September 13; Burundi vs Kenya, Zanzibar vs Uganda; September 14, Rwanda vs Ethiopia; September 15, Kenya vs Zanzibar, Uganda vs Burundi; September 16, Tanzania vs Ethiopia; September 18; Semi-final, A1 vs, B2, B1 vs A2; September 20; Finals & 3rd place.